Another year in audio is fading
into the past, and another Rocky Mountain Audio Fest is in the books. Marjorie
Baumert's RMAF has become one of my favorite audio events… the combination of
location, great support from vendors, and a solid turnout each year has really
hammered this one on my calendar. In fact, I've only missed one of these, in
2008, when I was in Virginia. Otherwise, I've caught them all.

To that end, I concentrated on
CES's "Performance Audio" (the recent euphemism of choice by CES) Show at the
Alexis Park, and let my PFO colleagues do the elsewhere places this year. (See
their reports elsewhere in this issue.) The liberty of a more leisurely pace is
a real blessing, and it gave me the opportunity to re-visit some superior rooms
and confirm their quality, which is not something you can do if you're trying to
see "everything." (Steve Wright: "You wouldn't want to have it all—where would
you put it?") Instead, I spent a couple of days browsed various settings,
looking for the ones that pulled me in, and had me coming back for more.

The result of this approach is a
new PFO show honor, which I'm dubbing the "Audio Oasis!" awards. This is my
personal recognition of the rooms that, even under show conditions, really
connected with me, and refreshed me in the midst of the tyrannous urgency of CES.
If these systems can connect emotionally at CES, I reckon that you can count on
them doing great things in your listening room at home. That's a good thing to
know if you're looking for guideposts on your audio quest.

A word of warning for my
readers: the "Audio Oasis!" awards should
not
be viewed as a variant of the nearly worn-out "best of show" recognitions that
are all too common in audiodom. I did not see every room at CES and T.H.E. Show,
and can have no idea of how what I didn't hear sounded like. Furthermore, there
aren't nearly enough days at CES to do that properly in the first place, and its
hotel-based environment is marginal, at best. "Best of Show" is only a
legitimate designation if the listener: a) heard every room at CES/T.H.E. Show,
and b) knows what he or she is talking about. Think of it as the combination of
opportunity and sensibility. I don't think that these conditions are met very
often; if they were, there would probably be fewer of such pronouncements.
Enough said.

That's how this award was
launched; every year since then, I've concentrated on them when I attend an
audio show.

This year's RMAF had a goodly
crowd and a solid cross-section of designers, manufacturers, and distributors in
play. It was great to see so many audiobuds, and so many good products on
display. As always, I couldn't get to them all… there's too much to see and hear,
and too little time. And plenty of good friends… hese are the foundation of what
I love about audio gatherings… they're like an extended party of folks with a
shared passion for the audio arts.

Carol Clark and Lila Ritsema of
PFO share a moment (and a drink!) in the Marriott Tech Center atrium.

Left to right, Myles Astor of
PFO, our good audiobud Chris Sommovigo of The Signal Collection, and PFO's
Dave Clark enjoy the kickoff of the show!

Down to business: time to cut
to my Audio Oasis! Awards for RMAF 2011.

Analogue Productions Demo Room

My first one goes to the very
first room that I visited on Friday morning: the Hyatt Highlands Amphitheater,
featuring Chad Kassem's Analogue Productions room, with its demonstration
of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here in James Guthrie's new surround mix in
DSD for SACD. (In fact, I am sitting here right now listening to that SACD as I
write these words. Excellent!)

Looking downhill from the rear
channels towards the front array of Acoustic Transducer Company (ATC) speakers
for the demo. These are the same type of speakers that James Guthrie used to
master the new surround mix for Wish You Were Here.

I arrived early for this
demonstration, not wanting to be late for such a significant session.

The front speaker array: ATC x
3!

This was also my first
opportunity to hear the Playback Designs PLink system used in a surround
presentation. I am intimately familiar with the performance of the MPS-5 and
MPS-5/USB-X configurations in stereo for both SACD and DSD, but was eager to
hear what the results would be in five channel.

The source stack in the Analogue
Productions room: on top, a Kuzma turntable; a Playback Designs MPS-5 on the
second shelf; a Playback Designs MPD-3 on the third shelf; a Mytek Digital D/A
(in black) and Playback Designs MPD-3 on the fourth shelf; and an EMM Labs
six-channel unit on the bottom shelf. The surround mix came from a computer in
the rear of the room, however… pure DSD to this stack.

Andreas Koch of Playback Designs
and Gus Skinas of The Super Audio Center just before the demonstration of
Wish You Were Here. Brilliant fellows, who really dig DSD!

James Guthrie introduces the
very first public performance of his new surround mix of Pink Floyd's Wish
You Were Here.

When the time came close for the
demonstration, a special first-time event for the audio press, I grabbed the
central seat that I had reserved (show up early… win a prize!). John Atkinson, a
good audio friend, took the chair next to me. After some light conversation
between us, James Guthrie took the floor and explained the new 5.1 mix of
WYWH. Good-o, and a pleasant introduction.

The audio press listens intently
to the first presentation of Wish You Were Here in DSD 5.1. John Atkinson
of Stereophile is in the center of the image; I was to his right for my
listening.

Then came the music. I wasn't
familiar with the ATC speakers, but they handled the near-concert-level playback
that was used without blowing up… always a good thing! The Playback Designs
processors provided extraordinary quality with the DSD signal; no surprise at
all, since PD is the best I've heard for DSD. And it did it LOUD, without
distortion: according to my trusty iPhone 4's AudioTools SPL meter, we heard
WYWH at peaks of over 108 dB, filling the room with powerful dynamics, and a
pretty mind-boggling holographic soundfield (not just a soundstage, amigos).

I'll admit it: I've never
experienced anything quite like this.

And for an old Pink Floyd fan
like me, this was ambrosia!

We listened to the entire album,
straight through, and without interruptions. At the end of the demonstration, it
was one wrung-out audience…it was like we had been at a concert! Couldn't be
better. Clearly Chad Kassem's top-notch production values were in play… Chad's
work sets a global standard for excellence in fine audio that everyone in the
music business should emulate. Many talk about doing great work; Chad just
goes out there and gets it done… and has for years.

If this project is an indicator
of things to come, I hope that we see the complete Pink Floyd catalog issued by
Analogue Productions.

No doubt about it: a PFO
Audio Oasis! Award for Chad Kassem, Analogue Productions, and the entire team
for its Wish You Were Here demonstration!

The PFO hospitality room
at RMAF 2011; Lila Ritsema (left) presiding!

While I was cruising about from
room to room, the Positive Feedback Online room was busy throughout the
show. Many visitors and friends dropped by, caught the Sonicweld+DEQX/Unison/Blackbird
Audio system in action, and partook of water and "adult beverages." It was good
to have a place to hang out and meet the folks.

EAR USA: great sound… again!

The view from the sweet spot: EAR, Marten, Jorma Design, Townshend/Helius/Dynavector, Music Vault

Handily enough, Dan Meinwald's
EAR USA room was right across the hall from us. I dropped in to visit Dan, who
is a great fellow, and a very knowledgeable music lover. His room is always a
treat, winning my Audio Oasis! Awards on a regular basis.

This time was no exception. The
combination of EAR with the Townshend Rock 7 turntable, Helius tonearm, and
Dynavector XV-1s cartridge feeding the EAR 324 phono amp and 834 integrated amp
cascaded into the Marten FormFloor speakers. These last I was not familiar with,
but was impressed with their easy and always-musical sonic presentation. They
certainly delivered well integrated sound, much more than I thought they would,
as I looked at them. The synergy of this combination was quite fetching. Sitting
and listening to some vinyl with Dan was a real pleasure… relaxation in the midst
of the hurly-burley of RMAF.

Once again, a tip o' the hat to
Dan, and an Audio Oasis! Award to his room.

The guitarist Dean Peer and our
close friend George Cardas… a good moment at RMAF 2011.

The Signal Collection/MA
Recordings room

Lila Ritsema of PFO and
Chris Sommovigo of The Signal Collection.

One of the most pleasant
surprises of RMAF 2011 was how good The Signal Collection/MA Recordings room was
sounding. I've known Chris Sommovigo of TSC and Todd Garfinkle of MA Recordings
for many years now. I think I have just about every disc that Todd ever produced
over the years, in CD, SACD, and high-resolution PCM formats; and Chris and I
have been in touch with each other since his Illuminati (remember that?!) days.
These two teamed up again to put together a room that at first glance seemed a
kind of audio throwback…

…but when Chris and Todd fired
up one of Todd's 2x pure DSD recordings, my socks got knocked right off my
footies! Naturally, the quality of Todd's pure 2x DSD was match-to-the-fuse… it
doesn't get any better than 5.6mHz DSD, in my opinion, but the rest of the
system was a highly synergistic pipeline for that signal, delivering it in an
almost magical, sensuous way.

The Davones were one of the most
iconoclastic speaker designs that I've ever seen. Reminding me of nothing other
than 1950's audio styling…very different! Very cool! And, as it turned out, very
fine sounding! You could almost imagine a young playboy walking into the room in
a smoking jacket, Scotch in hand, to listen to some Miles Davis.

I was unfamiliar with the
Absoluta integrated in the room, but was captivated by its rich, detailed sound.
Its presentation was not dark or rolled off; just luscious and deeply musical.
The Absoluta danced circles with the Davone Audio RAYs; Todd's recordings
breathed life and presence in spades coming through this system.

Todd Garfinkle's Korg MR2000s
DSD recorder with a DVD of one of his .WAV discs on top. Todd's DSD recordings
are amazing testimonies to the possibilities of the format.

Overall, this was the most
unlikely system at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest this year… compact, unassuming,
stealthy, even sneaky… but then, when you walked in and the music cued up, it
knocked you out loaded! I don't think that there was a more jack-in-the-box
system than this one.

Overall, I was very impressed
with the results here. Dan wasn't using ultra-expensive components, but his
modded players and his line of rugged and intelligently designed preamps and
amps filled the room with solid, harmonically integrated, well-balanced music. I
know the sound of the Oppo BDP-95 quite well…I have an unmodded player right
here in my office, which gets constant use while I'm working…and so paid
particular attention to his A/B comparisons between them.

No contest. The modded player
was more liquid, more three-dimensional, deeper in soundstaging, and without a
slight glare that was noticeable only by the A/B check. Impressive… Dan knows his
stuff!

I'm not familiar with the
Daedalus loudspeaker, but it certainly sounded good with the ModWright and
WyWires feed, so points to them all for very good synergy.

And an Audio Oasis! Award for
producing such fine music through great craftsmanship.

Merlin Music Systems/Cardas
Audio/Ars Sonum

Bobby Palkovic and Rich Brkich
returned to RMAF 2011 after missing a couple of years. It was good to see Bobby
again after the hiatus.

Bobby Palkovic of Merlin Music
Systems with his Master VSM, Master BAM, and Master RCs; fresco by Robinson.

Bobby's rooms are always
musical… always. He plays great tunes… this time CDs… and shared his trove of
recordings with anyone who came in the door. The Master VSMs were sounding
better than anything I've heard from Bobby, period. He's taken his basic design,
and has tweaked, and optimized, and fought to get the best that he can get out
of his classic two-way design. Given the design parameters, the results were
over-the-top: deep, rich bass that was well controlled, a wondrous, luscious
midrange, and an extended top end, courtesy of the Ars-Sonum/Cardas Clear
combination. The Critical Mass Stands are some of the very best that I know of,
and add a level of transparency that's hard to believe, unless you've done the
comparisons with other stands. (I have.)

I listened for a while. No doubt
about it, this was another PFO Audio Oasis! Award for Merlin Music and
Cardas Audio… this time featuring Ars-Sonum and Critical Mass Systems.

Welcome back, Bobby!

Alan Kafton of audio excellence
az and Joe Cohen of The Lotus Group in the Marriott atrium: two good audio
friends. We enjoy seeing them at RMAF every year.

From a completely different
vector comes the design philosophy and sound of mbl. I have been increasingly
impressed with their work since RMAF 2007 (see my Brutus Awards for 2008 at
www.positive-feedback.com/Issue41/brutus_awards.htm),
but there have been some ongoing problems with distribution in the USA that have
made it impossible for me to complete the evaluation of their line. The good
news is that it appears that the distribution problems have been solved; the
even better news is that the mbl designs seem to have gotten better, with the
101E speakers now in their Mk. II version. I hope to be able to do a full review
of their line in 2012.

This year, mbl USA brought their
smaller entry line, the Corona series, to RMAF. At THE Show Newport Beach, I had
gotten to hear the big brother line, which took an Audio Oasis! Award at that
event; now I spent time with the Corona.

I have to say it: the Corona
line does a brilliant job of giving you a sizeable percentage of its bigger
sibling system. While it doesn't have global top-flight authority and masterful
ease, or the truly holographic expression of the Reference line, it does have
the family signature in detail, nuance, and transparency. German values are
written all over this system: it's the audio equivalent of driving a really
nice BMW. (And I admit it: I'm partial to German cars!)

I don't have a verified
components and price list for this room, and since there were two rooms going,
I'll have to dispense with that for now. Just check out the Corona line at mbl's
web site,
www.mbl-northamerica.com.
Pricing is available upon request there.

After listening for a while, and
talking a bit with Jeremy Bryan, it was clear to me that the mbl Corona line was
another PFO Audio Oasis! Award winner. And deservedly so!

I have been following the Von
Schweikert line for a very long time now. As a matter of fact, I've owned
several of the VR speakers over the years (VR-4, VR-4 Silver, VR-6), and have
evaluated/reviewed several others (the very fine VR-9's, and the VR-5's). Albert
had the VR-5 Anniversary Edition on display; I was familiar with them, but I had
not heard them with Jolida electronics before.

The Jolida Fusion Monoblock: 200 Watts of 211-based power!

The results with the United Home
Audio UHA Phase9 open reel tape deck and the Jolida Fusion preamp and monoblocks
were really impressive. There is always something very special about open reel
tapes… this is where I started in audio, while still in high school…and the
overall effect was smooth, richly harmonic, dynamic, and commendably
transparent. (I have to admit that I am completely unfamiliar with this company
and this tape deck, and had no time to dig in on it while at RMAF 2011.) I sat
there for a while, just soaking in the music. It was so good that I forgot to
check the titles of the classical recordings that we were listening to! The VR-5
AE's were providing rich, involving sound, with little to fault in terms of
musical values. Reasonably compact speakers… but full-range performance! This is
the real thing, amigos…Albert Von Schweikert and company have produced a real
marvel here. I'm going to have to look into Jolida… that's a lot of bang for the
audio buck!

And I guess that I really should
see if United Home Audio is interested in a review of their Phase9 sometime, eh?

Anything that gives me such a an
exceptionally pleasant, relaxing audio experience at RMAF rates an Audio Oasis!
Award in my book…done!

DEQX room

The DEQX room at RMAF 2011…"And now for something
completely different!"

This one is a bit different, all
right. PFO reviewed the DEQX HDP-3 processor in conjunction with the
Legend Acoustics Tikandi speaker in Issue 57 (see
www.positive-feedback.com/Issue57/deqx.htm
for more), wherein Adam Goldfine did an excellent job of drilling down into the
enhancements that the DEQX system brings to audio playback. I hadn't heard an
A/B comparison myself, however, and had no experience with the DEQX system.

The kind folks there were quite
willing to remedy that! I got to hear a demonstration of the DEQX HDP Express on
a Parasound Halo amplifier, Gallo Reference 3s, with active demos happening
using the Legend Acoustics Tikandi. While I admit that I'm quite conservative
about "signal enhancement" in general, Adam's notes on the HDP-3 in Issue 57
caught my attention… and the DEQX demonstration was pretty convincing. The
improvement that occurred during the switchover from no DEQX to DEQX processing
was immediate and substantial. The presentation of the music became rounder,
richer, more harmonically coherent, ever-so-much-more involving.

It was as if a very major
component upgrade had been made on the fly. The Legend Acoustics Tikandi were
transformed from good speakers to really good speakers, and the quality
of the audio experience went from, "Well, OK," to "Very fine!"

I admit that I'm intrigued by
the DEQX system. You should be, too. Check it out at
www.deqx.com.

And a room that I probably would
have just passed by without the DEQX system became a PFO Audio Oasis!
Award winner, just like that….

Burmester room

In the Burmester room: engineering begets beauty!

Burmester is a name that has
been known in fine audio for years now, but I confess that I hadn't had an
opportunity to give their designs a listen. And then I got a chance to meet Robb
Niemann, the CEO of Burmester North America, at a high-resolution summit meeting
convened by Winston Ma of First Impression Music. Robb was a great fellow, and
we agreed to stay in touch with each other in the future. So I made sure that I
dropped by the Burmester room during RMAF 2011.

Good thing, too! The Burmester
system on display immediately caught both my ear and my eye…especially the new
Media Server that Robb was demonstrating with a great deal of pride.

111– Media Server, Beta Unit,
with a delivery forecast for late Quarter 1 or early Quarter 2 of 2012, and with
an estimated price (at this time) of $50,000. Robb told me that the 111 "…is
basically a 069 Reference CD player, an 077 Reference Pre Amplifier, and a
Digital Media Box, all in one, with TONS of extra stuff in it."

088 – Pre Amplifier: $28,995

89 – CD Player: $28,995

948 – Power Conditioner: $7995

911 – Amplifier: $29,995

B80 Mk2 – Speakers (these were the ones that I heard): $58,995

B10 – Book Shelf speakers: $8495

I enjoyed the sound of the 111
Media Server quite a lot. In conjunction with the rest of the demo system, it
was nicely transparent, detailed, and had a sense of ease that was very relaxing
to me. The articulation of details in the recordings sounded very promising,
even under the usual difficult show conditions. I've made arrangements with
Burmester to receive review samples of their line in the near future, and on
into 2012. I want to hear more…

But clearly, there was more than
enough in what I was hearing to merit one of my PFO Audio Oasis! Awards
for Burmester at RMAF 2011.

I dropped by the VTL room to say
hello to Luke Manley and to check out the latest there. Luke was doing a
presentation about the new Siegfried Series II monos ($65,000/pair), which were
being featured in a truly impressive system:

The Tape Project Otari open reel
tape machine in action in the VTL room… great sound!

I stayed to listen for a while,
catching both analog and digital sources. Good thing, too… this room was sounding
truly spot on! Incredible dynamics (no shock there… 650 Watts per beastie in tetrode mode, 330 Watts per in triode mode, with a 5 Ohm load), smooth,
well-integrated sound, and reasonable transparency and detail (though these last
are always tough to evaluate under show conditions… better to do that back in my
own listening room). I had never heard the TADs sound so good as they did in the
VTL room that day.

Scrumptious stuff!
I've made arrangements for Luke and I to follow through on the Siegfried Series IIs and the TL-7.5 preamp (and perhaps that TP-6.5 phono amp!) in the second
half of 2012. We'll see what happens when I try them out in the very revealing
space that is my reference listening room… but I'm sure that I won't be
disappointed.

I hung around for a while,
listening…and listening. This was knock-out stuff, without a doubt.

Not hardly. It's just that I
happen to have exactly the same components…the YG Anat III Pro Sigs, the Tenor
350Ms, and the Kubala-Sosna Elation! cables… in my listening room right now, with
stellar results. So what I heard was really no surprise at all, discounting for
the vagaries of show conditions. In fact, I was interested to notice that the
same general qualities of audio reproduction that I've been experiencing back at
home base were in clear evidence at RMAF 2011: powerful dynamic range (those
Tenors don't run out of gas!), excellent detail, and top-notch imaging and
soundstaging. This is real reference grade stuff, amigos. Even in a larger room
like the one that they were occupying, the music didn't tap out at all… a very
good thing. Some larger rooms overwhelm lesser systems, with a result that is a
lot less than pleasing.

The YG Acoustics Anat III
Professional Signature alongside one of the Tenor 350M monoblocks, and cabled
with Kubala-Sosna Elation! cables. Synergy in spades!

The system list for the GTT
Audio & Video room includes the following:

As a tip o' the hat to my
upcoming review of this tandem, I'll say that the synergy of these components
from three different companies is as if YG, Tenor, and Kubala-Sosna were three
divisions of one company. That's not impossible, but it's rare enough for me to
comment on it. Those of you who are keeping track of where synergy lives should
add this combo to your sheets.

No doubt about it: this is
PFO Audio Oasis! Award country; their award is richly deserved.

Blue Light Audio

In the Garden of Delights: The
Extraordinary Blue Light Audio room. There is far more here than meets the eye….

Once again, Jonathan Tinn and
company had a room that was tip-top…no surprise, since Blue Light Audio has been
doing this for years now. Every show that I've handed out my Audio Oasis!
Awards, I've given one to Blue Light's room, because in every show Jonathan sets
a standard for truly superb audio reproduction. Simple as that.

Jonathan Tinn and audiobud Mike
Lavigne in the Blue Light room, standing next to the exceptional NVS turntable.

The rich array of sources in the
Blue Light room was exceptionally impressive, particularly since the room itself
was on the small side. Featured formats were SACD, DSD from hard drive (!), LPs,
and open reel tapes provided by Bruce Brown of Puget Sound Studios. Maximum use
was made of the room volume by Jonathan Tinn's use of his mighty-mite Evolution
Acoustics MMMicro One loudspeakers, undoubtedly the most over-performing
speakers in all of fine audio… and only $2500/pair, including the floor stands!
The MMMicro Ones have been astonishing everyone who's heard them for the past
year now. For bang-for-the-buck, they're unrivaled. Period. And since they are
compact, the room wasn't overloaded with gear, despite the numerous sources
being demonstrated.

Joel Durand of Durand Tonearms… his
work is magnificent sounding, and seductively beautiful!

The Super Audio Center DSD
Master Files for computer playback: not for sale

Overall, this is quite an
amazing banquet of reference-level sources.

Michael Spitz of ATR Services
with one of his Ampex ATR-102 tape recorders with custom Aria electronics… very
tasty!

Also being demonstrated was the
superb Wave Kinetics NVS direct drive turntable. Poised on its dedicated
isolation platform, which seemed to detach it sonically from the underlying
hotel furniture that it sat upon, and sporting Joel Durand's latest tonearm
masterpiece, the 12" Telos with an Ortofon A90 MC cartridge, it produced
incredibly fine LP playback. This turntable system produced absolutely
first-rank analog reproduction, which was a mind-bender, given that bloody hotel
stand. (I think that this was Jonathan's deliberate effort to draw attention to
the quality of the Wave Kinetics isolation system…if so, it worked. I noticed!)

The NVS turntable with the 12"
Durand Telos tonearm to the right; on the left is the Durand Talia 9" tonearm.
The dedicated Wave Kinetics isolation platform is below, on top of the hotel
stand. Unbelievably good!

All of the sound in this room,
regardless of the source, was simply outstanding. Certainly a pair of the
Evolution Acoustics MM2s could have given us more bass and a higher extension,
but the MMMicro Ones sounded like speakers costing 5x-8x their $2500 price tag. darTZeel's integrated amp was another overachiever that simply cracked the whip
on the MMMicro Ones… it's an incredible bargain in the rarified realm of
world-class amplification. Transparent, clean, clear, and powerful signal
pumping; I could be content with the darTZeel CTH-8550 for quite a long time.
And the sources! The Puget Sound Studios/The Super Audio Center master tapes was
a true delight; LPs were as good as I've heard in show conditions, and listening
to Double DSD was mind-blowing. Mic feeds and master tapes for sure!

The Durand Telos 12" Tonearm.

Frankly, anyone who wanted to
learn what the state-of-the-art in sources sounded like would have benefitted by
spending some serious time in the Blue Light Audio room. Between this room and
the Analogue Productions surround demo, Playback Designs excelled in every
parameter, and every source was an audio education. (We could stand a lot more
of that, eh?)

In sum, if you didn't make it to
this room, you missed what the cutting edge in fine audio sounds like. Don't
make the same mistake in the future!

This year's RMAF was a great
time for all of us from PFO who made the trip. Thanks to Marjorie Baumert
and the entire crew there in Denver who worked hard to make this event happen so
successfully once again. I've already got RMAF 2012 on my calendar for next
October… if you're wise, and love great audio, you'll do the same!